Farmer's Wife closed for good

Following a complaint, an inspection by the PA Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services Dec. 20, 2016 found Farmer's Wife Restaurant out of compliance due to a cockroach infestation. The restaurant has since shut down permanently.(Photo: Chris Asroff, Lebanon Daily News)Buy Photo

About four months after the restaurant was required to close temporarily by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture due to an imminent health hazard, the Farmer's Wife Restaurant in Ono has posted on its front door that it has closed permanently.

The letter posted on the door reads:

With great sadness, we regret to inform everyone that we will be locking our doors permanently on Monday April 24 at 2:00pm. We would like to thank all our customers and everyone in the community for over 10 great years here at the Farmer's Wife Restaurant. Many of our staff here have seen our customers since they were children, grow, and have families of their own. We love our customers as if they were our own family and many were treated and have treated us as such. We appreciate everyone for their support and love. We look forward to possibly seeing everyone again in the future. Thank you!

John Politsopoulos, owner of the restaurant, gave a brief explanation to the Lebanon Daily News Tuesday.

"Just pretty much the changing of, let's say, the economic situation of everything," he said. "Of the area, of different other locations, franchises and stuff opening up, a lot of businesses like the Farmer's Wife opening, so stuff like that."

He said that he wouldn't call their situation negative, but he said the restaurant was not doing as well as it had in previous years.

Troubles for the restaurant began Dec. 20, 2016 when the PDA's Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services spotted more than 25 cockroaches during a food safety inspection. The restaurant at 10609 Allentown Blvd. was required to halt operations indefinitely.

The inspection came as a result of a complaint filed with the PDA which stated a patron allegedly saw a cockroach crawl across a counter top. Two days later the restaurant was permitted to reopen after a follow-up inspection indicated 'no activity.'

Following a regular inspection by the PDA on Jan. 4, the Farmer's Wife was again found to be out of compliance overall. During the inspection, a complaint was received from a patron which was then investigated and confirmed, according to the inspection report on the PDA website.

Although the inspection found the restaurant out of compliance, the department's Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services did not shut the restaurant down this time because it was not considered an imminent health hazard, Lydia Johnson, director of the BFSLS, told the Lebanon Daily News Jan. 25.

There were 11 violations found during the Jan. 4 inspection including six live cockroaches found under the front service counter area, on the floor behind equipment located in the front food preparation line, on the wall behind the bain-marie, and in a glue board trap behind the waitress serving counter station, and 10-12 dead cockroaches were found in other areas, according to the inspection report posted online by PDA.

A Jan. 18 follow-up inspection to the Jan. 4 out-of-compliance report revealed that there were more cockroaches found, one live and two dead, but the restaurant was deemed to be back in compliance.

"When the original complaint happened (Dec. 20), I believe it was due to a disgruntled employee that had previously left," Politsopoulous told the Lebanon Daily News Jan. 25.

Regardless of where a complaint comes from, Johnson said they are all looked in to. Politsopoulos also provided an explanation for where the cockroach problem stemmed from.

"We had gotten a bad shipment of potatoes, and that's how we have the issue. But it wasn't, like the report said, a big issue or an infestation, or closed indefinitely which pretty much killed our business," he said.

Johnson said that she couldn't confirm that a bad shipment of potatoes is what brought the cockroaches into the restaurant, but she did say these insects like cardboard. Shipments usually come from warehouses, and if the warehouses have cockroaches they're going to get shipped into restaurants, she said.

Politsopoulos also said Jan. 25 that "on a Wednesday" before Christmas was the only day they were closed, and he said it was because of renovations being done in the kitchen.

Dec. 21 was a Wednesday, the day after the order to shut down was given to the restaurant. That day, a paper note was observed on the front door that said they were closed temporarily for "kitchen repairs."

Politsopoulos said that the restaurant was "pretty much allowed to open up the next day" after the inspection by the PDA, but they weren't able to get the inspector out until Dec. 22.

"So it wasn't a big issue. It was taken care of," he said about the cockroaches on Jan. 25. "Now with an issue like that, it's not taken care of overnight, but the majority of it was because it wasn't that big of a deal."

As he continued, he described the affect that the report has had on the business.

"What we're left with now is the aftermath of the report on Facebook and in the paper, which said that we were closed indefinitely, which was false. And now I'm left with over 30 employees struggling to make ends meet due to the report," said Politsopoulos.

He said that the Jan. 4 inspection was a regular inspection that he believes was the result of a complaint from the same individual, and he said he believes the inspector decided to pursue a regular inspection and a complaint inspection at once.

It is possible, according to Johnson, that a restaurant in a situation such as with these failed inspections, even though it continued to be open and operating, could face other penalties or citations as a result of such difficulties, but that information was not public as of Jan. 25.

According to PDA spokesperson Will Nichols, the department was not at all involved in the closing of the restaurant.